


8:47 P.M. on a Tuesday

by SilverServerError



Series: Destiny Records [4]
Category: CLAMP - Works, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Sex, Really fucking unhealthy reactions to hypersexuality, Stand Alone, a kurofai prequel, but not THE kurofai prequel, does this count as slice of life?, mild violence, past Ashura/Fai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 04:19:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6889720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverServerError/pseuds/SilverServerError
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When life tells you 'No' as much as it does Fai, the last place you want to hear it from is your lover. </p><p> </p><p>Can be read as a stand alone work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> This work can be read as a stand alone piece, but it exists in the Crossroad Karma universe. I don't think there are any meaningful spoilers in either direction. 
> 
> You don't need to know, but some points that are referred to are: 
> 
> Fai and Yuuko went to art school together.  
> Fai was recruited by Clover, the pop record label that groomed him for stardom.  
> There his manager was Ashura (Sr) and they ended up romantically involved.  
> Clover folded before Fai was premiered and Kurogane was a lawyer brought in to help sort out the wreckage.

“Oh, Kurger Burger!” Fai said in a lilt as he rounded the doorway to Kurogane’s study. “Still working?”

 

Kurogane just grunted, the ‘obviously’ implied.

 

“Don’t you think you’ve been at it long enough?”

 

“It’s not done until it’s done.”

 

The blonde let himself in, gaze avoiding the darkened window.

 

It wasn’t often that Fai liked what he saw in the mirror. He knew he was attractive on some theoretical level. Back at Clover his appearance had gone through enough focus groups that said as much. But that was really worth fuck all if there wasn’t someone being attracted to you.

 

“You should get some rest. Look at it with fresh eyes again tomorrow.”

 

“I’m kind of on a deadline here.”

 

Things were easier back when there was a team keeping him pretty. He’d been tan. His hair never got shaggy. A twice weekly massage kept his stress under control while a nail technician did the same for his cuticles. Daily work with his personal trainer kept him in a body just this side of unattainable by mere mortals, while his personal chef made sure he never had to count a calorie or worry about eating too little. And sleeping with the boss meant never having to call in when you needed a late morning.

 

Fai bent over the desk, resting his elbows on the wood with a cheerful smile. “I’m sure it can wait long enough for me to relieve some of your tension.” He gave a saucy wink.

 

“Tch.” Kurogane swiveled the chair pointedly away.

 

They were all things he could do himself, really. He could file his own nails. Do sit-ups at home. Eat a vegetable once in a while. Force himself to go out in the L.A. sunshine. But he just…

 

… didn’t.

 

And the body it had taken a team of professionals thousands of dollars a week to build and maintain, slowly slipped away.

 

“Come on, Kuro-pu, don’t be like that.” Fai rounded the desk, coming to kneel before him, blinking blue doe eyes up at him. “I’ll make you feel so good.”

 

Fai was left with a reflection he hadn’t known since he’d been a teenager. Skinny. Pale. Desperately in need of a haircut. He looked exactly the same, except old.

 

And minus the ink he’d once drunkenly spent a week’s worth of food money on because Yuuko had wanted their tattoos to match.

 

(“A phoenix.” He’d told Ashura in hushed tones one night, pulling his long hair aside so he could have a clear view of the back of his neck. “Because I’ll always rise from the ashes.”

 

“That’s adorable.” He’d answered, planting a smiling kiss to it. “But you know it has to go, right?”)

 

Fai pressed on. Why was Kurogane so resistant tonight? He’d never seen a guy work so hard to turn down a blowjob. It was almost exciting though. Like a reminder of how things had been in the beginning. How hard Kurogane had resisted. How crazy it had driven Fai. But it had been different then, because then there had been the ever-present secret that the forbidden was something they both desperately wanted. He’d never felt more beautiful.

 

Now?

 

If Kurogane was really this repulsed with him, couldn’t he at least spare his feelings and come up with a less bullshit excuse?

 

“Please, Daddy?” He drug his cheek across Kurogane’s thigh, voice growing heated and looking up at him wantonly. “I’ll let you do _anything_.”

 

A foot caught him in the stomach and he fell back with a yelp. It hadn’t been a kick but it still hurt. For a second he just groaned. There was a momentary fantasy of going out in a short shirt and low riding pants, letting people glimpse a mottled bruise and wonder. Not that it would bruise. It hadn’t been anything like hard enough.

 

Kurogane was standing now, looming over him. The chair was knocked back, lying on it’s side, a single wheel still spinning. “Christ, Fai!” Kurogane snapped, livid. “Learn how to take a fucking ‘No’!”

 

Fai was smiling, ready to laugh this off. Pretend it had never happened. But Kurogane took another step forward.

 

“I’m not interested, Ok? You want me to spell it out for you?” His hands were fisted. His mouth a snarl.

 

Fai winced and crawled back a step, his eyes on the carpet and his chest tight. “Sorry.” Fai said in a rush. Kurogane froze mid-step. “Sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have bothered you. I’m sorry.”

 

He saw Kurogane sag and offer him a hand to stand up. He took it.

 

“You know I hate it when you call me that.” Kurogane said as he pulled Fai to standing, still buzzing with anger but holding it in check.

 

“No. I know. I shouldn’t have.” Fai tried to leave but Kurogane still didn’t let go of his hand. Fai knew better than to fight it.

 

“Idiot.” He sighed it under his breath.

 

 


	2. Dragon

“Oh, Kurger Burger!” Fai called rounding the office door.

 

Shit.

 

Here we go.

 

“Still working?” The blonde asked.

 

He grunted the affirmative.

 

“Don’t you think you’ve been at it long enough?”

 

He already knew where this was going. And yet still, he hoped they could avoid it.

 

“It’s not done until it’s done.”

 

Fai was enthusiastic when it came to sex, and historically it wasn’t hard for anyone to work their way into his bed. The only reason they’d stayed away from each other as long as they had was Kurogane’s unyielding professionalism. (Unyielding in the past tense because, well, it had eventually yielded.) He still wondered sometimes if he hadn’t been working for Fai at the time, if they might have just fucked and been done with it. Maybe he could have gotten the blonde out of his system. He could have moved on.

 

“You should get some rest. Look at it with fresh eyes again tomorrow.”

 

“I’m kind of on a deadline here.” It wasn’t a lie. This research needed to be done before tomorrow or it wouldn’t do their defense any good.

 

It wasn’t a whole truth either.

 

If you’d have told Kurogane six months ago that he’d get tired of sleeping with Fai, he would have laughed in your face. Well, no. He’d have given a lecture about how unprofessional that would be, and how in a million years he would never, ever have inappropriate relations with a client. The Kurogane from five months ago though, he’d laugh. And he’d look really satisfied as he did it.

 

But things were different now. As soon as they’d become official, Fai had become devoted to satisfying him, wearing this alter ego to bed that he knew tore Kurogane apart. But slowly that version of himself began to replace the one he’d gotten to know in the first place. The Fai that got sad. The Fai that told terrible jokes and got competitive over stupid things. It was the Fai he loved, but the Fai he saw less and less of until one day, he was gone all together.

 

Kurogane didn’t have the most active sex drive in the world. It wasn’t that he ever _couldn’t_ , but he was just as happy to not. Sex without love seemed like such a needless hassle and he’d rather take care of himself. His infatuation with Fai had been something of an anomaly, but there was something about his personality that brought out a side of himself he hadn’t experienced before. At first it had been amazing. Toe curlingly, hair pullingly, screamingly amazing. But as the Fai he knew retreated into this caricature of himself, so did his attraction.

 

“I’m sure it can wait long enough for me to relieve some of your tension.”

 

Ironic that Fai should make that offer when he was his greatest source of it.

 

“Tch.” He turned away.

 

It was hard not to be angry. Their partnership had come at a great professional cost to Kurogane. He hadn’t given up his position just for Fai to retreat like this. Trading seduction for conversation. Sex for intimacy.

 

“Come on, Kuro-pu, don’t be like that.” Fai knelt at his feet, eyes huge and submissive beneath him. Even amid all the resentment, he couldn’t help the arousal it caused. Fai had worked miracles on his knees for him, and though he hated his body’s reaction, it was something he couldn’t deny.

 

Before Fai, even with his anger issues, he’d never really understood hate sex. He did now.

 

Those blue eyes were bright with promise. “I’ll make you feel so good.”

 

There was a bite mark on the back of Fai’s neck that Kurogane hadn’t put there. He knew Fai was cheating on him. Maybe he had been since the beginning, but he hadn’t been watching for it back then. Fai usually made an effort to hide it, but either the blonde couldn’t see the mark in the mirror and didn’t realize he had it, or he just didn’t care anymore.

 

Fai’s hands are running up his thigh and his face is inching closer to his crotch. “Please, Daddy?” It’s so hard not to feel hateful. Not to feel betrayed. “I’ll let you do _anything_.”

 

As if that’s supposed to make him feel _special_?

 

He kicked out, forcing Fai off his leg and leaving him splayed out on the carpet.

 

As it that wasn’t true for anyone he met in the goddamn street?

 

“Christ, Fai! Learn how to take a fucking ‘No’!” The crash of the chair was his first clue that he’d stood up. “I’m not interested, Ok? You want me to spell it out for you?”

 

“Sorry!”

 

Kurogane froze. Because there was Fai. He was terrified, but for a moment he was _Fai_.

 

But then it was gone, the mask back down. “Sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have bothered you. I’m sorry.”

 

Kurogane sagged. But he did want Fai to bother him. And make jokes at his expense. And be so frustratingly annoying. Because then he’d be _Fai_. At least now he knew he was still in there somewhere. He offered his hand and the blonde took it.

 

“You know I hate it when you call me that.” Kurogane said as he pulled him up, half hoping Fai might fight him on it. Hit him with any number of stupid nicknames.

 

“No. I know. I shouldn’t have.”

 

Fai tried to pull away, but Kurogane didn’t let him. As if the mere presence of a physical anchor might give his true personality something to hold on to.

 

That and Kurogane just wasn’t ready to let go. “Idiot.”


End file.
